Girl In Closet Gets Mother 2-1/2-5 Years Child Was Covered With Filth, Was Half Of Normal Weight

January 26, 1990|by DEBBIE GARLICKI, The Morning Call

On Aug. 15, three days after her 10th birthday, Sherri Layton got the best birthday present anyone could give her, according to an Allentown detective.

It was on that day that the emaciated, mentally retarded girl was found and removed by police from the confines of a urine- and feces-covered closet in which her mother had left her.

Yesterday, her mother, Koreen D. Phillips, 29, was ordered to serve 2-1/2 to five years in Muncy State Prison for endangering the welfare of her child, a charge to which she had pleaded guilty.

As part of a plea bargain reached in December, the Lehigh County district attorney's office wouldn't have objected to her being sentenced to time served -- about 5-1/2 months -- since August when she was arrested.

Detective Sgt. Carl Balliet, who had investigated the case, strenuously objected to the negotiated plea.

"This is the first time I heard about that plea agreement, and I'm totally opposed to it," Balliet said.

Before the sentencing hearing began, Balliet showed Assistant District Attorney Carol Doup color photographs of the girl as she looked when the manager of Camelot Gardens apartments on Allenbrook Drive found her.

The manager was inspecting Phillips' apartment for water damage from a leak in the upstairs apartment when he opened a closet to check the water heater. He found the child wearing only a diaper and lying in a fetal position against the water heater.

The photographs showed the child's protruding ribs and thin limbs. Sherri weighed 43 pounds, about half the normal weight of a child her age.

"You know me. I don't get personally involved in this stuff," Balliet said. But this case, he said, angered him.

When the hearing started, Doup asked to show the photographs to President Judge John E. Backenstoe, but Assistant Public Defender Earl C. Supplee objected.

Supplee earlier had handed the judge a copy of a psychological report on Phillips.

"This is a difficult sentence," Backenstoe said, adding that he wanted to think about it over lunch. Court was recessed and the hearing resumed in the afternoon.

The report, Supplee said, describes Phillips as a person "lacking in insight" who views her life on "a day-to-day survival basis."

Phillips is not a danger to herself and others, and incarceration is not likely to help her, the report said.

She has shown remorse for neglecting her daughter, Supplee said.

When Backenstoe asked Phillips whether she had anything to say, Phillips replied, "I just want to get my life back together. I'm very, very sorry, and I just hope I can make it up to my daughter someday.

"I just want to get her back and be a better mother and make a better home for her," Phillips said.

The child was taken to Allentown Hospital after she was found and was placed in the custody of Children and Youth Services. At the hospital, she drank glass after glass of water and devoured the food given to her, Balliet said.

Sherri could not speak but used a homemade sign language to indicate she was thirsty.

Balliet said he recently spoke with a social services agency that placed the child and learned that Sherri was doing well.

The child's father is dead.

Phillips, who was not home when the manager found the child, told Balliet she was at a bar drinking beer.

"I tried questioning her further," Balliet said, "and she just shrugged her shoulders."

Police found drug paraphernalia in the apartment.

When the plea bargain and the agreement for time served were brought up again at the hearing, Balliet said, "Your honor, can I say something, please? All I want to say is that before you pass sentence . . . I brought pictures along. All I want you to do is look at the pictures of the young lady before you pass sentence."

Backenstoe said the presentence report prepared by the probation office outlined the facts of the case, and he added that he had carefully examined that report and the psychological report.

Phillips has no criminal record. But Backenstoe noted that she had entered a plea to a first-degree misdemeanor and admitted knowingly endangering the welfare of her child by violating a duty of care, protection or support.

"The facts of this case show such gross irresponsibility that it borders on an intentional act," the judge said in explaining his reasons for rejecting the agreed-upon sentence.

Backenstoe said he found no mitigating circumstances in Phillips' favor.

Phillips is wanted in Delaware on charges of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, keeping a house for the consumption of drugs, and conspiracy. A hearing will be scheduled to determine whether Phillips will be extradited to Delaware to face those charges.